The Independent
The Great Hurt of Indian Boarding Schools:
A Readers Theatre Production, scripted and directed by Carl Gawboy and performed on the FdL Campus By Maglina Lubovich mlubovich@fdltcc.edu
The Independent Faculty Advisor
“I have a few photographs of the Indian youth here…A very large portion of them had never been inside a school. I am gratified to report that they have yielded gracefully to discipline…” ~Captain Richard Pratt, 1898
“Seventy-five, fifty, and even thirty years ago it was a great hurt to be told that Indian children must be taken from their homes to be raised by others who would fit them into a more modern world. In the past, Indian children were literally herded off to distant schools, like sheep or cattle.”
~Carolyn Attneave, a social worker in Oklahoma (1954)
“All the boys in our school were given English names because their Indian names were difficult for teachers to pronounce. Besides the Aboriginal names were considered heathenish, and therefore should be obliterated… I experienced a great hardship for I encountered a rule that prohibited the use of my own language, a rule that was rigidly enforced with a hickory rod.” ~Frances LaFlesche, author and first Indian to earn a PhD in anthropology
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College was witness to “The Great Hurt,” a powerful and moving event on Friday, March 25. Carl Gawboy’s Readers Theatre production is a script that focuses on
Proposal to Resumer St. Louis River Watch Program
By Sabrina Greene greene.sabrina@s.fdltcc.edu The Independent Staff Writer
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College coordinated the St. Louis River Watch Program from 1997 to 2007. The program is a youth-based water quality-monitoring program for the St. Louis River and its tributaries in northeastern Minnesota. Jay Sandal, Andy Wold, and Courtney Kowalczak are currently working to acquire a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture that will provide the funds needed to start this
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April 2011 actual “historical accounts of American Indian boarding schools” and the trauma—past and present—that they brought to generations of native people. Gawboy is a local artist, historian and teacher. He is a member of the Bois Forte Band of Minnesota Ojibwe. The reading was held in the auditorium and was presented to a packed house of over a hundred people, including President Larry Anderson. The room was dark except for the illuminated stage and projection screen. After a brief opening by Cynthia Donner, Gawboy’s wife and collaborator on the project, FdL’s Anishinaabe Student Congress Vice Chairman Bryan Burns introduced Gawboy. Gawboy explained the origin of “The Great Hurt,” which he began working on in 1972 when he was an intern at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. He began collecting historical documents of real people involved in the boarding school experience. He originally conceived of it as play, but since developed it into a readers theatre production. One problem he faced until quite recently was finding a public audience for his script. “At the time, no one was interested in boarding schools,” Gawboy remarked before joking, “I guess it took Indians building their own schools.” Readers Theatre is a performance genre growing in popularity. It involves a cast reading a script (rather than memorizing lines) and has a sparse stage with no props or costumes. In this case, the projection screen showed slides of text introducing each reader and setting up the “story.” There was no music or other audio, only the sound of the readers’ voices and their steps across the auditorium floor. At times the silence in the room was chilling but it fit perfectly with the often somber narratives being read aloud. It began with Captain Richard Pratt and the start of the boarding school “experiment,” an idea sanctioned by the U.S. government as a way to “civilize” and “Americanize” American Indians in the years of Reconstruction following the Civil War. Excerpts from Pratt’s memoir, read powerfully and believably by Phil Norrgard, told of his years as an army captain during the Civil
program again. The previous program connected twenty-five schools from communities within the St. Louis River Watershed. Around 800 students and teachers participated in gathering scientific data from river sites. All of the river sites are located within the 3,634 square miles of the Minnesota watershed including the 2,140 acres of Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College’s ESA (Environmental Study Area). Many secondary schools integrated this environmental learning activity into their permanent science curriculum. If the USDA funds this new grant, the program will resume in September. At this point, a coordinator for the program will be hired and participants will be determined. Participants may include schools, community groups, or any other community citizens interested in helping with the St. Louis River Watch Program. All participants will need to go through training before taking part in the fall sampling in October. The Independent will keep you updated on the status of the grant. If you have further questions regarding the St. Louis River Watch Program, please contact Andy Wold at awold@fdltcc.edu.
War and his aim of transforming native youth at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. For obvious reasons, Pratt was the least likeable of all the voices included in this great performance. Other members of the cast read accounts of those most affected by the boarding school experience—the children themselves. Reflecting back as adults, they told of being taken against their will to be educated away from their homes, families, and cultures. Once at the boarding school, they were not allowed to speak their native language or enact their native customs. Some did not return home for years, while others never did, for they died at school. As reader Darra DeLung asked, in her interpretation of Charlotte Annette’s piece from 1974, “What school has a cemetery attached to it? Only Indian boarding where the cutting off of home connections was so final that they didn’t know where to ship the children’s bodies.” “The Great Hurt” ended with Joni Cabrera reading Harold Napoleon’s essay which was distributed at the 1990 Convention of Alaska Federation of Natives. In it, Napolean explores historical trauma and argues that many native people are “born into a cultural rubble, physically and psychologically traumatized.” He asks where his people can go from here and suggests that “the survivors of the Great Death must end it.” “We must speak,” he tells us near the end of his narrative. It is the “speaking” of this great hurt of the boarding school experience that makes Gawboy’s performance so important. To recall these wounds, to teach others of its hurt, is a step towards healing. Gawboy has several future performances of “The Great Hurt” scheduled, including ones in Alaska in April and at the Black Bear Casino in June for the American Indian Mental Health Conference. The event was sponsored by The College of St. Scholastica’s Department of Social Work and the FdL Anishinaabe Student Congress. Other readers include: Catherine Burt, John Clark-Pegg, Bunny Jaakola, Maglina Lubovich, Kari Stroik, and Chally Topping-Thompson.
Issue 1, Vol. 1
Fond du Lac Tribal & Community College
Page to Minnesota Fathers: Rise Up! By ROBERT GILLMOR gillmor.robert@s.fdltcc.edu The Independent Staff Writer
A major turnout was expected for the 3rd annual Minnesota Fathers Forever event and you can consider those expectations to be met with resounding success. On March 5, a large crowd of people estimated to be around 300 in size descended upon our campus in search of legal counseling, emotional support, or to just have a memorable day with their loved ones. The main attraction was a keynote address by MN Supreme Court Justice Alan Page. Page, who is also an NFL hallof-fame member, took the opportunity to remind fathers of the crucial role that they play in their children’s lives. “We can all rise. We all have the ability to lift ourselves up and to lift those around us…our role in our children’s lives cannot be overstated. The love that we give our children and the love that we get in return are invaluable in so many ways.” Justice Page also stressed the importance of education in our children’s lives. “Education is a tool that we can all use to make the future better. It is a tool that no one—nobody—can take away from us…It is the most powerful tool we have, and unfortunately, in some regards, we have undervalued this process.” Page is also known for his establishment of the Page Education Foundation. The non-profit organization provides financial assistance to Minnesota high school seniors of color who are seeking a college education. The Page Education Foundation has raised more than $10 million dollars and has assisted over 4,000 students—including a few who have attended FdLTCC. A stipulation associated with a grant from the foundation states that
recipients must dedicate a certain amount of hours to community and public services. Justice Page also took the time to answer questions from the audience. When asked what was harder, being a judge or playing football, he responded. “I loved playing football. But in the end playing football is like being a kid in the candy store. Over time you eat a lot of candy and you get sick. It is more valuable to be a judge, at least to me.” Page was also asked about the political unrest in Wisconsin. While he could not directly answer this question, he did offer this: “I think it is short sighted, when the lack of funding denies the people of educational opportunity. Just to be on the safe side, I will also say this; the legislative branch and the executive branch need to decide policy or the option to enact bad policy. The question for us as judges is to decide on its constitutionality.” He was met with a raucous roar of approval from the audience. Out of the planned day, the keynote address was only a small fraction of the services offered. Legal advice relating to child support and visitation rights was available to fathers who may not otherwise be able to afford such counsel. “We want to encourage dads to be positive role models for their children.” Said event organizer Brian Thorbjornsen. “A lot of fathers do not read the fine print of legal documents and this leads to other problems later.” “I get a little anxious when I have to deal with these issues… But I found the information I needed in order to see my kids,” one of the male attendees told me. Other activities were provided to fathers who wished to remain a positive influence in their children’s lives, such as providing an opportunity to record a video message and sending it to children they may have not seen in years. Parents and families were also able to have professional family portraits offered at no charge. Included among the various other sponsors of the event were, Fond du Lac Human Services Division, The Duluth Children’s Museum, Sappi Fine Paper at Cloquet Mill, and the Fond du Lac Tribal & Community Colleges Student Life Club.